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Suspect in mall fire was just out of prison

Moore
P. Solomon Banda Associated Press
Moore

LITTLETON, Colo. – The man authorities say is suspected of carrying out an apparent attempted bombing at a Colorado mall had been released from prison a week earlier.

The FBI said Sunday that agents are looking for Earl Albert Moore after Wednesday’s fire at Southwest Plaza Mall, about two miles from Columbine High School, where 13 people were killed 12 years ago. Federal Bureau of Prisons records show that Moore, 65, was released from prison April 13.

FBI spokesman Dave Joly said Moore served time in a Georgia federal prison. Federal court records show that Moore pleaded guilty in May 2005 to robbing a bank in Crab Orchard, W.Va., of $2,546.

A judge sentenced Moore to between 15 and 19 years in prison, but a federal appeals court in 2006 ruled his stiff sentence was “unreasonable” and Moore’s sentence was reduced to seven years.

Authorities said they discovered a pipe bomb and two propane tanks in a hallway of the mall’s food court after firefighters responded to a fire. The explosives, which did not detonate, were found after the fire in the hallway prompted an evacuation of the mall. No one was injured.

Moore has an extensive criminal record and should be considered dangerous, federal officials said. He has used at least seven aliases that include variations of the names Earl Albert Buchannan, Donald Charles Morelli and Gary Steele, according to state arrest records. Investigators have exhausted all leads locally and have put out an alert to every FBI office the country, FBI spokesman Dave Joly said.

“Last time we knew where he was locally was around noon Wednesday at the mall,” he said, referring to the previously released surveillance photos showing a man believed to be Moore in a hallway accessible only to employees and the suspect carrying a plastic shopping bag while riding an escalator.

Moore is described as being between 6 feet and 6 feet, 2 inches tall and weighing about 200 to 225 pounds. He’s bald with blue eyes and a gray mustache and has a tattoo of a Viking on each of his arms.